Eric Adams isn’t just potently incompetent and compromised. He’s mastered the manipulative weaponization of identity, paranoia, and power — and he’s far from finished with his billionaire backers and Republican donors.
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Eric Adams doesn’t govern New York City for New Yorkers but instead offers up performative politics in all senses of the matter. With every press conference, every sermon-like speech, every declaration that somehow the color of his skin is [collectively why he is disgraced.] Somehow instead of governing as a Mayor for the people, he has convinced the public that he is a victim of personal prosecution. But while the showman of all showmen performs for the masses, personal conspiracies abound, his convictions and morality are no longer the question as they are the answer. If you’ve ever criss-crossed between Adams being a former cop out to do the bidding of his billionaire buddies and backers and somehow Adams being a good Mayor is nothing short of the work of a great propaganda machine.
A propaganda machine that while thousands of New Yorkers are being evicted every week, followed by the ballooning migrant crisis and the consequences it has had on the five boroughs, continues to paint Adams as the most hunted man in the five boroughs. A hunt that starts and stops with Adams and the question over his convictions and morality both of which were revealed to be corrupt after it was exposed that he cut a backdoor deal with the Trump Administration to avoid federal charges over the very corruption we are warning you about right here in this editorial piece — corruption that he also denies but is widely documented.
The question of Eric Adams in the future isn’t whether or not Adams could perform as Mayor but rather who he would be performing for. After revelations marred his previous campaign that he was secretly in bed with the Turks, to say he is compromised seems like it would be (and fun fact: IT WAS) a criminal understatement.
II The Victim King
In Eric Adams’ New York, when the cameras go off, the only thing more distressing than mass displacement; income inequality, and failing infrastructure is how unfairly Eric Adams feels treated on any given day. It’s likea two-faced special, New Yorkers on one side of the coin get a man who claims he will fight for them, but on the other, has quite literally been proven to only fight for the highest bidder (in this case the Turks and his many business associates and donors which vary from Republican donors to deep pocketed billionaires.)
Perhaps one of the most telling points of Adams’s mayorship is when he notably cut public services in his budget in favor of keeping NYPD-related perks (remember: he is a former cop, once a cop, always a cop here folks.) Even then when confronted on that front, Adams has mastered the art of Trumpian-style deflection tactics. Grievance politics over policy explanations or any form of genuine emotion or apology. As he hopes to cling to power, we must remind New Yorkers that this is the same man who said he is being victimized because of the color of his skin by his party and the public. Remember, the public elected Eric Adams on their own accord — New Yorkers did not have a gun to their head at the time. So to argue that he somehow is victimized over the color of his skin — makes him the perpetual King of Victimhood. Because Mr Mayor, if the color of your skin mattered in any of this, this probably would have gone a lot differently if history is anything to go by when it comes to these things.
The strangest part about Eric Adams isn’t his cunning ability to deceive the public about his convictions, it is rather how he has managed to confuse legitimate scrutiny with outright character assassination. A man who somehow equates civic accountability with a form of racial persecution. And in a city with a Black and other community that has long been betrayed by the local systems of power; the NYPD, and related — that is a dangerous spell to cast. A spell that says if we have this Black man in power, we cannot criticize him without being accused of attacking Black leadership, if one questions his governance, somehow that’s an act of second-degree betrayal on the community-at-large.
But Eric Adams does not represent anyone or anything else it and their name is Eric Adams. People cannot expect a showman like Adams who exploits the pain of a community he claims to represent for his gain to do the same community good. In Adams’ world, the community must remain down for Adams to get ahead as he has proven with other high-profile schemes involving politicians busted for corruption.
III Who he really governs for, and it isn’t the common New Yorker.
When you take away the glossy speeches, the press conferences, the fancy suits and prepared remarks — you don’t get a Mayor you get a man who has governed on power, not policy or principle. Power in name power in play power in how he can serve himself, not the people. His service is almost entirely in that of power over the same people he is now pleading with to return him to power in November for another term as Mayor of New York City.
As we learned when Adams shuttered select public services, the NYPD for example, kept their budget line items in play while the rest of the city suffered. This is a result of Adams’ own past as a former cop, once a cop, always a cop, and cops look out for other cops. The developers who bankroll his campaigns get fast-track approvals and sweetheart deals — while those who play by the rules get nothing. Tech firms, real estate giants, hedge fund managers, big banks, foreign governments — make no mistake these are the real constituents of Eric Adams.
In terms of the NYPD, it is an understatement to say that Adams still looks out for the NYPD even long after his own NYPD career. While the city suffered following his highly-publicized public service cuts due to his budget proposals — the NYPD’s overtime fund and budget stayed rife with funds. In terms of developers, despite the glaring cost-of-living crisis in New York City, luxury apartments and developments continue to spring up borough-wide at alarming rates. These developments are not priced for the common New Yorker, they are priced for the very constituents who have bought and paid for Eric Adams. Officials are suddenly crying foul over a cost-of-living crisis quite literally created by their own doing it’s like the pot calling the kettle black.
Perhaps the following words could not be truer about Eric Adams. Adams sells himself as a former badge of honor, a man of the people, a former cop, a Brooklyn son, a self-proclaimed Vegan on a spiritual journey supposedly out to heal himself and the millions of people he governs. But in policy, practice, and personal convictions — he has governed like a broker of backroom deals: loyal to donors, disdainful of dissent, allergic to transparency. The mayor’s war isn’t against affordability, crime, street drugs, or injustice. It’s against those who dare stand up to a man who has proven that his narrative and destiny will always come before the people of New York City.
IV Fear in a Suit and Tie
Eric Adams doesn’t govern like the progressive Democrat he once positioned himself as to the world but instead as a force of fear. Notice in Adams’ world it is always somebody else’s fault, never his, no matter the sheer scope or reality of the situation he is involved in. Rising crime, chaos, disorder, the infamous migrant crisis, prosesters, budget gaps and lapses — at the heart of each of these situations the same claim emerged: it was never the fault of Eric Adams it was always the fault of someone else dare say otherwise you’re somehow challenging the very idea that a Black man could be in such a powerful position to begin with. It’s back to the question of his perpetual victimhood that somehow questioning his mayorship or his actions means that somehow we are questioning the idea that a BLack man could rise or that he somehow is the only one capable of doing so.
We’ve become a city governed by personal ambition and anxiety instead of thoughtful policy and what is right. We must end Eric Adams at the ballot box — the years of deceptive practices, lies, manipulation, and police over people, are over. The years of defelcting away from accountability for his actions and others are over. #SayNo to Eric Adams at the ballot box in November in the general election for Mayor of New York City.
Sources & Citations
- Cuts to Libraries, Education, and Social Services
→ Gothamist – “Mayor Eric Adams cuts library funding again” (Feb 2024)
→ Chalkbeat – “NYC schools face more cuts under Adams” (Jan 2024) - NYPD Budget Protection Despite Cuts Elsewhere
→ The City – “Adams’ budget shields police, slashes social programs” (Dec 2023)
→ New York Times – “Despite budget crisis, Adams boosts NYPD overtime” (Nov 2023 - Real Estate Donors and Pay-to-Play Investigations
→ City & State NY – “FBI investigates Eric Adams’ campaign and Turkish building deals” (Nov 2023)
→ ProPublica – “How Real Estate Money Flows Through NYC Politics” (2022) - Use of Migrants as Scapegoats
→ NY Daily News – “Adams blames migrants for NYC budget woes” (Oct 2023)
→ CNN – “Adams says migrant crisis will ‘destroy New York City’” (Sept 2023) - Police Surveillance and Protest Suppression
→ Intercept – “NYPD using facial recognition tech under Adams expands quietly” (2023)
→ AP News – “Adams defends NYPD response to protests, critics allege crackdown” (2023)
Quotes and Public Statements by Adams
- “No one has been attacked more than me.”
→ Politico – “Adams lashes out over criticism, says he’s targeted because he’s Black” (May 2024) - “God chose me to be mayor.”
→ NY Post – “Eric Adams says God made him mayor of NYC” (2022) - “I’m the CEO of this city.”
→ Bloomberg – “Adams likens himself to a CEO of New York” (2023)
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